Thursday, 13 May 2010

Drop stitch jumper

I like the idea of turning that knitting nightmare, the drop stitch, into part of a pretty design. Obviously you can't just drop stitches at random, you have to have a method to your madness,which is just what this lacy 1940s confection has.

"The Quickest Jumper you ever knitted!" claims this Weldons pattern. You knit rows of 3 ply garter stitch onto large size 5 needles, and when the work is almost completed, you drop every 5th stitch to form a ladder pattern. Bet that feeling of deliberately sabotaging your carefully-knitted work on the final row is quite nerve-wracking...

This jumper looks very demure knitted in a pale cream or beige and modelled with pearls and a bouquet of lily-of-the-valley, but if you knitted it in black, you'd have a far punkier confection on your hands.